Poetry With A Touch Of Panache

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The Election Is Over …Thank God!

I wanted to say hello to those of you who follow this simple blog and let you all know how much I truly appreciate it.

I have been very absent over the past few months for a number of reasons, some of them health related while others have been more emotional. I allowed myself to take our election here in the United States personally. I know this feeling was not solely felt by me, but by many on both sides of the political spectrum. I will say this, I was not and am not a supporter of Donald Trump or the Republican Party. This is no longer the party of Reagan (he had his flaws as well). As conservative as Ronald Reagan was, he did not display the ugliness of Donald Trump, his campaign, nor his surrogates. President Elect Trump’s campaign was filled with racism, prejudice, misogyny and outright hate. Essentially he is the living definition of a sociopath.

This being said, there are a number of things that I have been seeing from the Democratic party that I believe to my core are the wrong things to do to affect change in both the party and the country after this historic and bizarre election.

First, I have received numerous emails from the Democratic Party in the state which I reside to do everything we can to “fight” Trump. This is just what the Republicans did to our current president, President Barack Obama. This attitude does nothing but feed the division within this country. This does not mean that we should not fight policies that are in opposition to our platform, but we must also mold policies that are being promoted by Trump and the Republicans that can be made to fit at least some of our agenda. We can not spend the next four years opposing every single policy proposition just because it was proposed by a Republican…this is what the Republicans had done for the last eight years…it wasn’t right then and it would not be right now and ultimately serves no positive purpose. Secondly, we must work harder to detail and explain to the American people what our policy propositions are, how they will positively affect us and how we will pay for them. This election was not won on policy at all, but instead on personal attacks. The person that was better at promoting their negative message ultimately was the person that won.

I will say that although I am disappointed in the American people both for who they elected and the low voter turnout numbers, I will hope for the best for this nation, for short of violent overthrow, Donald Trump will be America’s next president.

In the end, I will respect the office, but hold his feet to the fire to make him prove that he can be the President of all the people…including me.

Thanks for hearing my not so eloquent rant about the state of America. I have so much more I want to say, but I’m sure you all have your own problems and definitely better things to do.

I don’t disagree Juan, but for our nations sake I hope this isn’t true, I certainly don’t hope for failure. There is a good portion of this nation, members of my family included that voted for the “orange” ompa loompa, so even though he didn’t win the popular vote, we as Americans have to hope that we can come through this political debacle relative unscathed. I don’t know that this will happen, and I certainly won’t give him a free pass, but I guess we will have to see what happens when he takes the oath. Thanks my friend.

I hear you but talk about weird events, false news stories, hacking, little was done against him… maybe he was telling the truth, it was rigged and he knew it… Now the silent dog whistle has been sounded and his flock will do that famous night of Broken glass long ago… It’s happening faster than I thought..

Perhaps, but I suppose that we will have to wait and see. I can’t honestly say that I am comfortable with what happened and I do believe that it was rigged, but not against him. We live in troubling times, I just hope that I don’t become the eternal pessimist, it isn’t healthy and it would be depressing.

You are right it didn’t, but I’m not advocating giving him a free pass at all, it is just that if a policy is proposed that isn’t against what I believe to be right, I’m not going to object just because of who he is or the party he belongs to. Obstruction just for the sake of obstructing is wrong, it was wrong when the Republicans did it and it will be wrong now. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like anything at all about the man, I never liked him even before he ran for office, and I certainly don’t have any respect for him, his words or his actions during the campaign, but like it or not, he is the President and I do have respect for the office and will fight him tooth and nail when he is wrong and support him when and if I think he is right. Thanks Juan.

Thank you Dom for sharing this with us. For those of us who live outside the USA it is hard to imagine what it must be like. I found a viewpoint as compassionate as yours in “The View From Here” on “denisegainey.wordpress.com” . I hope there are many more Americans like you two, and I hope you will find ways to survive and spread you compassion among those around you.

I too hope that there are many more like us. Our nation clearly has problems, but we are not alone in that fact. It is my hope that as a nation we can come together and find some common ground to overcome the racism, prejudice and hate that was spewed during this election cycle. I truly believe that the vast majority of us really are “better than that”. Thanks my friend.

I voted for Clinton, freely admit it, but I do think it is time to try and live with what we now have. I have actually been watching interviews with Trump, trying to find a bright spot or two and he has things he wants to do that could work if (and this is a big if) he can just put the hate aside. If doesn’t surround himself with hate minded people then maybe he can bring about some change in Washington. Who knows? I’m just trying to dig out a small diamond in a gigantic meteor of coal. Great post. Well said.

Hello my friend. I realize it has been a long time since you posted this comment and I apologize for the late reply. I think the time that has passed has allowed us to see that there are virtually no bright spots to be found in Trump or his cabinet choices. Their sole goal seems to be to increase the size of our military, stamp down women’s health rights and to destroy the nation’s social safety net programs. I am deciding at this point as to what I am going to get involved in to fight back against this fascist. As yet I haven’t made up my mind, but I am definitely going to get involved in some cause. I hope the season finds you well and thank you for your nice comment. – Dom

Dom, Read your every word & loved what you said. Wish we could have an extended discussion about this chapter in our American history, The American people are revolting within our political system about many things. —The Bernie supporters as well! Trump is just the vehicle, the outlet. Sad for the country that the only candidate the American people could turn to for change was a totalitarian person like Trump…..endangering our democratic system & values. And yet, Hillary beat him by 2%, 2 million votes! Electoral College has to go!!! One of the main reasons the Founding Fathers created it was as a check on the American voters to REVERSE the election of someone like Trump!!!!! But that’s not going to happen ….there would be riots in the streets! Your words & ideas make a lot of sense to have bipartisan support on those things Democrats support!!! I hope your health is OK!!!!!! Have a joyous Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!! Phil

Hi Phil, I’m doing much better health-wise, but I still cannot seem to get over the election. I had hoped that I would be able to support things that Trump and the Republicans put forth as long as they were reasonable and didn’t go against my democratic values however, based on his cabinet appointments I don’t know that there will be much to support.

I believe we are about to see the disassembly and privatization of our wonderful Medicare system which many of his “followers” benefit from. This is the primary goal of Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon by trade, who Trump has nominated as H.H.S. secretary. Once this is done Paul Ryan will once again do his best to do the same thing to social security.

I have to say that I am becoming more and more pessimistic about this nation’s future. We are now being lead by an oligarch on steroids who is appointing fellow oligarchs to lead key federal departments. All of this leads me to believe that we are on the precipice of becoming a fascist state…and who’s fault is it…ours.

Perhaps we do need to fight Trump tooth and nail against all things Trump, this man is dangerous and he threatens the very fabric of our society. The sad part is that those that bought into his rhetoric, as so blind that they cannot or will not see it. Either way it is sad.

Anyway, have a wonderful Christmas my friend and thank you for your thoughtful comment, be strong and let’s all hold him accountable for his words and actions.